Worthing locksmith who ‘loved helping others’ will be remembered

Isabella Cipirska

An entrepreneurial grandfather, who ran a thriving Worthing locksmith business for around 44 years, has died at the age of 69.

Family man Colin Attle, of Roedean Road, who ‘loved helping others’, died after enduring a short illness ‘with extreme bravery and fortitude’ on Friday, June 16.

Born in Wick in 1948, Colin left school aged 15 to do an apprenticeship in agricultural engineering and, in his early 20s, started a garden machinery maintenance business.

As the business grew, it moved to a derelict property in Wigmore Road, which Colin worked hard to renovate.

After training and qualifying as a master locksmith and safe engineer, Colin turned his business – named Colin D. Attle Sussex – into a flourishing locksmiths, with the help of his business partner and wife, Sue, and sister-in-law, Tina.

Colin had two children with Sue – Jamie, now a costumier in London and Vicky, herself a locksmith at Attle Locksmiths.

When his marriage ended in 2002, Colin left the shop and set up a mobile locksmith and safe engineer, known as Colin Attle Locks.

He married Paula Wheeler, who had two children, in 2007 and always ‘took great pride and joy’ in his family.

A keen cyclist, in 2012 Colin co-founded the Durrington Community Cycle Project, in Pond Lane, Durrington, which helps unemployed young people learn to repair and maintain bikes, and is now based in Pond Lane.

Paula said: “He loved helping others and always enjoyed encouraging others to cycle. He encouraged others to develop a skill, as he believed that true wealth was having a skill at ones fingertips.”

Colin’s funeral takes place at Worthing Crematorium at 11am on Wednesday (July 5).

Family flowers only and donations are accepted for St Barnabas Hospice, care of HD Tribe in Broadwater.

Black is not required, as Paula said: “This will be a celebration of his life to all who knew him.”